Gothic Love
by Bob Zox
Summary: A little bit OOC. Story of twentysomething Danny and Sam love, Gothic style, from a darker perspective. I couldn't help it: while listening to Beethoven's Symphony No. 7, the Second Movement, I just HAD to add Chapter 7!
1. Chapter 1 Work before Play

Chapter 1 – Work before Play

It was a November midnight, but the streetlamps gave a faint yellow shine to the lonely alley in downtown Amity Park. The shadows were long, fooling the eyes that the red, yellow and orange leaves blowing in the chill wind were alive, an animated herd of rodents that were scattering before some unseen predator.

Now, a real predator was stalking the shadows. A tall and muscular, two legged predator that had been following the short shopkeeper, who had just locked up. The thug stood quietly around the corner in the alley. He knew his victim's routine. The shopkeeper had worked late balancing books and lost track of time. Now it was very late. The predator stepped quietly onto the sidewalk behind the shopkeeper, his sneakers making no sound.

The short, middle aged and overweight man began crossing the street in front of the alley. He had no perception of anyone being near, until he saw the door to a green Cadillac open up across the street. Out stepped a young, dark haired man in a black trench coat.

The shopkeeper, instincts alarmed at the dark appearance of this young man, turned around, and saw the thug behind him. Surrounded! He could only go to the right or to the left. The street lights were brighter to the right, and his apartment lay in that direction anyway, so to the right he now turned, watching the first young man, and trying to put distance between him and the man in back of him with hurried steps.

To his puzzlement, the young man from the Cadillac didn't come after him, but seemed to be staring at the man in back of him. His hand was suspended inside his trench coat, holding something. The thug scowled at the young man, and turned around and went back in the alley. A motorcycle could be heard starting, its throaty roar fading off into the distance.

Now the shopkeeper was under the brightest light, and almost to his second story apartment above the pharmacy across from his shop. He turned to look back at the young man. He was back in the car, it started and pulled away from the curb and headed down the street, red tail lights fading away.

"Thank you" he quietly said.

-----------------------------------

"Thanks Sam." Danny was getting a back and a shoulder rub from Sam as he sat at the table. His trench coat hung on the chair back. His sister Jasmine was setting some reheated, leftover pizza in front of him.

"Thanks Jazz."

"Any ghosts today Danny?" Jazz asked.

"No. Only stupid people." His answer led to new concerns, Sam and Jazz exchanged questioning looks.

"A mugger almost got a guy downtown. He wasn't a ghost, but he was the only action going on tonight. The coward didn't have the guts to pick on someone his own size."

Danny had become obsessed with patrolling and guarding Amity Park. He had taken to going to the old places where ghosts had been a problem before, but if ghosts were not around, the weight of his power obligated him to defend the weak and helpless against non-ghost attacks too.

This more mature, and dangerous direction Danny's life had taken concerned Sam, and she worried, even though she knew he was safe, he could become intangible and dodge bullets, knives, whatever criminals might use against him. He could frighten them by merely appearing in front of them.

But she knew too well what knives and bullets could do. As the mortician assistant at the Amity Park Funeral Home, she saw broken and abused bodies come in, as well as the aged and expired.

Her morbid fascination with this kind of work also made her Danny's biggest admirer. Since their graduation from Casper High two years ago, her college studies made her appreciate Danny's powers even more. He was the love of her life, and the most amazing study in afterlife and supernatural phenomena in her career.

Danny knew this too, and accepted it. There was no other girl that could know both parts of his halfa life, human and ghost, and still love him like a normal girlfriend. He valued this relationship, it was a fragile link to any sense of normalcy his life could have among the complicated and bizarre experiences of his day to day living.

"How was your day Sam?"

"I think I am ready for the midterm. Thank goodness I have tomorrow off from work. Wanna watch a movie?"

"Sure." Danny smiled, knowing that when Sam was burning the candles at both ends, work and school, that she would pass out fifteen minutes into the show. He didn't mind. He loved her gentle sleeping on his shoulder. His mom and dad had gotten used to coming downstairs in the morning and seeing the young adults passed out asleep on the couch with the TV on.

"How about The Crow?" He knew her favorite.

"Sure."

They sat on the couch. She took her boots off, and folding her legs, leaned against his shoulder. He put his arm around her, and they watched…


	2. Chapter 2 Play at Work

Chapter 2 – Play at Work

The cold November morning was brisk enough to keep Sam awake, and at the same time make her wish she was cozy in bed back home. It was these cold mornings she was glad she still had her purple nylons under her plaid skirt. But gone were the boots; the more professional duties she had facing grieving customers required more modest, flat shoes, but these were still black. Bundled up, she unlocked the Funeral Home where she worked, and went inside.

Hanging her coat up in the front office, revealing a black, long sleeved top and violet and black scarf, she went to the back to check on any deliveries made last night by the Police Coroner. She would sometimes come in to find bullet riddled gang members, homeless men whose dead bodies had been found in an ally or under bridges, or drug addicts who had overdosed.

This morning there were no 'surprises', and she breathed a sigh of relief. She had only to make arrangements for the next funeral, but first, she would make some hot tea.

Tea made, she sipped it as she went back to the storage area where the caskets were stored. Her favorite, a newer model made with an outside shell of purple acrylic, shining with dark blue hinges and trim, with a black stripe around the center, was on a prep table, with the top door open. Inside was plush purple felt, in button and tuck sewing, looking very inviting on this cold day.

_Hmmmm…it is a slow day. And this hot tea is making me sleepy. There is no business today, and the manager is back east for Thanksgiving preparations at his home. I think I'll take a little nap…_

Sam put the teacup down on the floor, kicked off her shoes, and climbed inside the casket.

_Mmmmmm…soft and quiet. _ She closed her eyes and napped…

---------------------------

In the front office, the thick drapes ruffled as a vapor passed through them into the Funeral Home. Green eyes searched as the vapor drifted through the building to the back storage area.

_Sam's shoes! Where…_

Danny saw her. She was sleeping in the casket, a hint of smile on her small mouth, lavender lipstick beckoning his male instincts. He appeared and became human.

Walking up to the casket quietly, he peered down at Sam.

His gaze admired her closed eyelashes, the guardians of amethyst globes that could cast a lifetime spell. Her gentle upturned nose reminded him of memories of feeling it against his cheek in passionate kisses. Her black, sleek hair, so healthy and beautiful. Her face was angelic, her body laying in the casket, devilishly vulnerable, tempting him to take advantage of her pose. He leaned in and pressed his lips against hers, a slow, gentle kiss, a kiss that said _awake my love!_

She heard his command, the demand in his kiss, and returned it with a moist conformity to his own lips as she awoke. She wrapped her arms around his neck and shoulders.

He opened his eyes, as she opened hers. She smiled, the _coup-de-grace _that captured him and made him all hers. He _had _to kiss her again.

Sam hoped the Funeral Home never sold this casket, it was the best accessory a goth-girl could have!


	3. Chapter 3 Drama! At the Disco

Chapter 3 – Drama! At the Disco

Saturday night, the lights were out in Sam's upstairs bedroom, except for the candles. Their light cast wavering shadows from inanimate objects, giving the whole darkened room the appearance of ceremonial dancers around a campfire. Her gothic music played _Lacuna Coil - Cold Heritage, _an epic, lonely theme with a woman's soprano voice singing in dark, powerful, echoed lyrics.

She was looking out her window, watching for Danny's 'ghost boat', the green '71 Cadillac Sedan de Ville. He was taking her to the club Sweet Oblivion downtown for their 'anniversary'…four years since they became boyfriend and girlfriend.

She had been frustrated in her attempts to get Danny to see her as more than a best friend back in those days. How ironic that it had taken her near death for him to cherish her, that brief encounter had breathed new life into her and Danny's relationship, a new romantic life now four years old.

And now, death continued to play a part in granting them an enhanced life, as she warmly recalled Danny kissing her in the casket at the Funeral Home where she worked.

The ghost boat headlamps appeared in front of her house. She blew out the candles, knowing Danny would see the candlelight extinguished in the curtains of her window, a silent signal that she was coming downstairs so he wouldn't have to face her parents.

Her parents thought their college educated daughter could do better than the mere high school graduate she was seeing. The unmotivated boy was working odd jobs, and always busy doing something, but Sam never told them what. If he wasn't spending time in college, it couldn't be good what ever his time was spent on, and he certainly couldn't be counted on to support their daughter should they, heaven forbid, get married.

Sam grabbed her black vinyl jacket for the cold November night, and clomped out the front door in her gothic platform shoes.

Danny watched Sam walking down the driveway to his car. He smiled. She was wearing a shiny black corset, tied in the front, with a shiny black skirt, cut shorter than the usual plaid skirts she wore to work, black fishnet stockings, and the silver crucifix he bought her last year for her birthday, shining and gleaming with purple and blue jewels. They matched her purple jeweled earrings that ran up both ears from small to large size, three earrings in each ear. She was Jewish, but the crucifix was an accessory, not a statement. Besides, she liked the irritating effect it had on her parents. Her glossy, black hair was down around her shoulders, pony tail gone. But his favorite part: the dark lavender eye shadow, accenting her eyes, twin disks of smashed amethyst that would make the merely beautiful jealous.

She climbed into the large bench seat that only the Cadillac could accommodate, and swishing her hips, scooted close to her man, and kissed him hello.

"Happy anniversary Danny"

"Happy anniversary to you too babe." Another smooch. He didn't care if he got lipstick on himself, she tasted good. He put the car in drive and they left.

------------------------------

Sweet Oblivion had a line for the entrance. But this was no ordinary line. A young man with long black hair to his waist, wearing a black shirt with fishnet sleeves, pierced nose and black eyeliner stood behind a girl in a short purple skirt with purple and white stripped stockings, her platform shoes nearly a foot high in the soles, frizzy, curly hair failing to hide multiple chrome hoops earrings that projected out through the hair like radar. All the others, dressed uniquely, each different from the next, but all of them in the same gothic theme.

Eventually Danny and Sam got inside, and began to slowly negotiate the crowd, merging into the chaos, holding hands as Danny led Sam through to the back where there were tall tables. They could make a stand there, and people watch before dancing. The music playing was _Lacuna Coil - A Current Obsession._

Shaved heads, bald shiny heads, tattooed heads, heads with long black or white hair, dancing, moving up and down to the pulsating, dark gothic music. Danny tapped his feet; Sam bent her knees and swayed hips to the heavy bass beat. Sam looked at Danny. She knew that this place was one of the few that could take his mind off the outside world, with its crime, corruption, and disillusionment. He could not hear himself think in the overloading environment. Sights, sound, even smell commanded attention; the brain could not dwell on past unhappiness or impending doom in this place. Danny smiled back at her.

She took his hand and led him to the dance floor, hips swaying, chrome rings on Danny's black shirt shining and bouncing as he was knocked by other dancers from the left and right. They found a place, and Sam turned around to face Danny. She began to dance to the sinister rock symphony. Danny began to move his shoulders and step towards and away from Sam, keeping his eyes on her.

An arm tattooed with a skull reached across Sam, and grabbed her hand. A tall man, long black pony tail and red see-through fishnet shirt, was cutting in! The man twirled Sam around against her will, and put his other arm around her, drawing her close.

Danny grabbed the man's arm and pulled it off Sam. Danny shouted above the music:

"She is with me. Leave and I won't hurt you."

The man smiled and swung a long punch at Danny. Danny ducked, dived around the man and became intangible. The crowd was too preoccupied and over-stimulated to notice.

Danny overshadowed the foolish man and made him walk outside. Sam went back to the tall table and waited.

Danny came back, human, and smiled at Sam.

"Want to go back where we left off?"

"Hmmm not yet. What did you do to him?"

"The police are outside watching for under age drinking. I walked him into the back seat of the cop car and closed the door. They are running a scan on him now for previous violations. He'll be busy for a while."

Sam smiled. Danny had become more subtle in the use of his powers for 'personal' issues. He used to overshadow bullies and then make them pound their heads into walls. Now he only used force when absolutely necessary.

"OK, let's dance!" They dance floor was crowded, but to Danny and Sam they were the only ones in the club…


	4. Chapter 4 Parking Lot

Chapter 4 – Parking Lot

It was four AM when Danny and Sam left the club, everyone else started leaving too. The parking lot was full of young people talking and laughing in between cars, music starting to play loudly from some of them. Headlamps here and there came on, engines roaring to life as Sam held Danny's arm and snuggled close to him as they walked to the ghost boat at the far end of the lot. Danny stopped.

Two men were standing by the driver door of the green Cadillac, one with spiked black hair, one with a white mohawk, both wearing black sleeveless shirts, tattoos morphing and shifting as their large biceps attempted to manipulate the delicate wire towards the door handle. The wire hanger inserted into the windows side, trying to unlock the door, they didn't notice Danny and Sam. Sam squeezed Danny's arm, and then relaxed as he went intangible and silently walked up to them.

Mohawk man looked up and saw Sam staring at him with an angry glare, her arms crossed. He smiled.

"Hey, I think the owner's here, check…her…out!" Spiked hair looked up to see Sam stretch out her arm and point her finger at them, like a pretend gun.

"Bang." She smiled as she flipped her thumb down on the imaginary trigger.

Mohawk's head snapped back with a CRACK as one of his front teeth went flying in a bloody spit. Spiked hair's eyes went wide as the wire hanger was yanked out of the window, and wrapped around his neck, he started choking.

The wire hanger dragged him down to join Mohawk on the ground, both men pushing on the ground and each other in an attempt to stand back up. Sam could hear a loud thud as Danny's boot kicked Spiked hair in the side of the head. _THOCK! _Another kick, this time to Mohawk. The men looked around in panic, but all they could see was Sam. She started laughing; the panic in the faces of tattooed, evil looking men was so inconsistent. Both thieves got up and ran out of the parking lot, yelling, Spike still wearing the wire hanger, Mohawk spitting blood.

The front passenger door unlocked and opened. Sam walked around the car and got in.

"Thanks Danny, you are such a gentleman, when you are not a viscous, cruel vigilante." She smiled looking straight ahead, not trying to figure out where he was.

The front driver door opened and Danny sat inside, became visible.

"You looked like you were having fun too babe. Mean cruel babe!"

He leaned over and kissed her.

"Jazz was right. What a pair we make." She whispered with lowered eyes.


	5. Chapter 5 When Bats Sleep

Chapter 5 – When Bats Sleep

The ghost boat pulled into the foggy cemetery driveway at four-thirty in the morning. The gate was locked, but Danny parked anyway, no one would be around until at least seven. He and Sam liked to come here, the familiar place, and familiar memories here comforted them, a stable, unchanging place in an unpredictable and disappointing world. The car stereo was playing _Lacuna Coil - Humane_. It was 'their' song.

The moonlight being enough, as it brightened and dimmed in the passing fog, he turned off the lights that briefly illuminated the marble crypts of the mausoleum, and they both got out. Sam pulled on her black vinyl jacket, Danny putting on his black trench coat, as they walked to the side of the gate driveway to the pedestrian entrance, the black wrought iron gateway arch was always open. Vines had grown over the years, intertwined with the wrought iron bars, the leaves gone in the November fall season.

As Sam and Danny stepped softly on the sidewalk towards the moonlit mausoleum, a fleeting glimpse of flashing black against the gray fog, above the great structure caught Sam's attention: a bat, artfully twisting and turning after the moths that had been disturbed by their car headlamps. Their night time visit meant death for the moths, and life for the bats. The plus and minus cancelled out any guilt she felt for triggering the ancient struggle for existence.

Danny put his arms around her small waist as they reached the foot of the steps, and facing her, looked at her eyes. Even now, her eyes reflected color, but now it was deep burgundy, her lips pale pastel lavender. On her fair face in the moonlight, they made her into an image of love that shone with a cold light, a goddess fit for the cemetery, a goddess that would make a man welcome death.

Sam put her arms inside his trench coat, and looked into his eyes, but his back was to the moonlight. Only darkness could be seen in his face, but she could feel the affection, his worship of her. His face came closer, his nose rubbing hers, in a deliberate, prolonged search for her lips. He kissed her, breathing in her scent, feeling the cold fog as he inhaled. She was breathing in too, taking in his smell, and the smell of the leaves decaying in the soil, the cold moisture in the fog, a thousand sensations at once. Her senses were overloaded, trying to listen and speak at the same time in this elementary communication between man and woman.

He pulled her closer, wanting to devour her if he could, breaking off the kiss, he kissed her cheek, then bit her neck where it met her shoulders, she gasped at the sensation, looking up. She saw that the bat was flying towards the mausoleum, under the great roof, and hung itself upside down, claws grasping a chipped edge inside. It stared back at her with eyes faintly reflecting green dots.

Here they were safe from the world of the living. The cemetery was the only place where there were people with no problems. Sanctuary.

The night time sky was beginning to glow: sunrise was coming. Time for bats to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6 When Ghosts Awaken

Chapter 6 – When Ghosts awaken

Another foggy, cold night at the cemetery, inky blackness above, but tonight...Tonight was Valentine's Day night.

A dark green Cadillac pulled into the familiar, black gated driveway. Danny had taken Sam out to dinner, and now at ten o'clock, they had come to their favorite, secluded sanctuary. The car lights shutting off, the car doors opened. He got out, wearing his black trench coat against the cold, her shining black vinyl jacket with her collar turned up against the moisture. This night, Danny and Sam held hands as they slowly walked the familiar walkway under the black iron and vine entwined archway entrance to the home of No Problems.

The fog was thick tonight, obscuring the mausoleum, but its roof could be seen above the low thick layer of gray. The bats were circling in their radar predation above the large marble and stone structure, but at ground level Sam could not see anything until they were within a few feet of it. As they walked closer to the crypts, tombstones came into view out of the mist, some with crosses; others had the Star of David.

Danny squeezed her hand, and she looked at him: he was pointing silently. She followed his direction, two large tombstones in the distance were midway between them and the mausoleum, their graves hidden by the mist, but the tops appearing above it.

In front of the grave markers, a softly glowing green haze appeared, that became twin oblongs of light, one over each grave.

The twin, drifting lights elongated, and became humanoid. Sam was spellbound. Danny stared. An arm from each cloudy light reached out, and they held hands. The forms became a glowing green man and woman, in turn of the century dress, her dress large and ruffled, hair in locks that draped from her flowered hat, he in a tuxedo and top hat. They appeared to be the same age as Danny and Sam, and just as in love, as revealed by their gazes towards each other.

The ghostly couple facing each other, and his arm around her waist and the other holding her hand high, her other hand holding a fan against his shoulder, they began to dance. They did not seem to notice Danny and Sam.

As the misty fog drifted over the graves, the green glow brightened and dimmed, but the couple still danced, a slow waltz, now slowly spinning together as they started to rise above the fog.

Danny put his arm around Sam, and she cuddled against him, holding her jacket collar close against the mist, watching with large, deep lavender eyes. The ghostly couple, dead for over a century, were now above the mausoleum, circling each other, the bats flying through their green haze, spiraling higher, spinning, smiling, eyes locked in an eternal gaze. They rose high in the sky, perspective shrinking them until they were a bright green star that twinkled, and then went out.

Danny and Sam walked up to the tombstones, reading them: _Beloved husband and wife 'till death do us part'_. Danny smiled at Sam, and she smiled back at him. Death had obviously failed.


	7. Chapter 7 Her Hand Given

Chapter 7 – Her Hand Given

The long winter night had begun with snow softly drifting down, without ceasing, building up drifts around the old but expansive Amity Park estate. The fresh powder did not allow for any sound, quiet dominated everything outside, leaving one to hear only heartbeats and memories of sound as in a distant dream.

Inside the old estate, the six foot fireplace made the only sound as large oak logs crackled their fiery end, sending sparks up the chimney, like a hellish rain in reverse.

The warm light flickered long shadows from the fireplace grating across the heavy, felt sofa, Royal Purple turning black in the dim firelight. Against one arm of the elegant couch, Danny lay back, his nose buried in her shining black hair as he held Sam on his lap. Both were staring at the flames, eyes like tiny mirrors gleaming orange, her arm around his broad shoulders, her petite feminine hand twisting a thick lock of his dark hair.

Even in the death of winter, she smelled of roses. But now and then his nostrils would catch a breath of smoke and ash from the fire. The smell of life, and of the end of what was alive clashed in his emotions. The union of opposites had always attracted him. When most of their friends would cavort in the springtime, their most romantic memories were in the colder time of year.

"More wine love?" She asked, feigning a move to reach for the bottle. He kissed the inside crook of her elbow as she stretched her arm out in front of him. The arm stayed, turning the inside towards his face in a plea for more affection.

"I am intoxicated already." He whispered, ignoring the offered elbow, face resuming its search through her hair for her neck. As his nose divided her hair and touched her white skin the feeling caused her to grab and pull his hair in reflex, now he was facing the ceiling. Sam turned around on his lap smiling with lowered eyelashes.

"You're giving me goose bumps sir."

"And you are a pain in the neck." Danny laughed to the ceiling. She relaxed her grip. Holding his head up again, he stuck his tongue out at her. She laughed.

"You shouldn't do that in front of my father you know, it's very disrespectful." She turned around to look at the portrait of her late father and mother hanging above the fireplace.

Sam's father looked intimidating, even in only two dimensions. His face was serious, eyes commanding respect or _else._ Her mother was slightly wrinkled, but with hair that was more of a platinum blonde than the white of old age. Her mouth wasn't smiling, but her eyes were, below gentle eyebrows that conveyed an outward, accepting personality to balance her husbands, a personality that had softened as Sam had matured, and Danny had grown on her as a possible future son-in-law. Pamela may have even smiled at Danny someday, had the tragic crash of their private jet not ended their lives two years ago.

"Well, he never liked me anyway." He shrugged.

"If he didn't like you, he never would have let you _live_." She laughed again.

"Then I would have died to have you." He wasn't smiling, but looking at her with blue eyes under shaggy brows with sincerity. She placed her hand lovingly on the side of his face, and leaned forward, her lips opening slightly, and pressed them to his. Returning the kiss he had been hunting all evening, he wrapped his strong arms around her to say _now I have you, you are mine!_

A loud _thud _broke their attention, nothing else but a dangerous sound could have made them take their lips from each other. She turned around to look behind her, and he leaned to his right to look around her.

A flaming log had rolled off the top of the pile in the huge fireplace, tipped over the grating, and rolled past the stone hearth floor, spewing sparks and ash, and stopped on the wood floor of the parlor. A mouse, disturbed by the vibration, scurried from its hole by the bookshelf next to the hearth, and ran across the floor, at first towards the burning log, then sensing danger, ran away from it and hid under the sofa.

Pushing his love towards the unoccupied side of the sofa, he jumped up and grabbing the tongs from the fire tools, picked up the heavy log, and dripping sparks, placed it at the foot of the fire. He stomped out the sparks that were burning into the floor planks.

Sam got up, and fetched the fire broom, and began sweeping the ashes from the floor towards the hearth. Still using the tongs, Danny rearranged the pile into a more stable arrangement. He put away the tongs.

"Look" Sam pointed at where she had swept.

There, in the wooden floor, a charred, but familiar pattern. Letters:

_LESSING_

The couple looked at each other.

She brushed away more of the ash. The burnt letters were fully revealed:

_BLESSING_

Another glance at each other, then, they both looked up at the portrait of her parents.

The portrait was the same. But now the couple felt as if they were being…_watched._

Sam stood close to Danny and put her arms around him, and he held her.

Looking at her father, he said

"Thank you…sir."


End file.
